Catholic donor may pull pledge

Catholics in Colorado Springs have launched a campaign to block large donations to the local diocese after Bishop Michael Sheridan called voting for abortion-rights politicians a sin.

In a May 1 pastoral letter, Sheridan said Catholics who vote for politicians who support abortion, gay marriage, euthanasia or stem-cell research “jeopardize their salvation” and may not receive Communion until they have gone to Confession.

Businessman Ric Kethcart told Sheridan in an open letter on Wednesday that he would revoke his $100,000 pledge for a church-building campaign in Highlands Ranch, Colo., unless Sheridan recanted.

“In this pastoral letter, you have chosen to lay down your staff and replace it with a bludgeon,” Kethcart wrote, according to a copy of the letter made public by the Denver Post. Kethcart said he has “no doubt” that other donors will join his financial protest. Peter Howard, the bishop’s executive assistant, said Sheridan would not be intimidated by money.

“The church doesn’t exist because of money,” he told the Post. “The church started out poor, and if such teachings and teaching the truth results in people withholding their money, so be it. That’s sometimes the price of the gospel.”

At the same time, Bishop Arthur Tafoya of Pueblo, Colo., said he would not deny Communion to anyone. Tafoya said abortion is one — but not the only — issue voters should consider.

“Respect for life is also confronted by hunger and poverty, the death penalty, euthanasia, war and … torture,” he said, according to the Rocky Mountain News.

In Washington, the liberal Quixote Center sponsored an ad in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call that said Catholics must also consider the war in Iraq, civil liberties, health care, “massive poverty” and the environment in casting their votes.

“Catholic bishops and single-issue groups who say that Catholics can support only politicians who are pro-life on abortion … violate our right to freedom of thought and the primacy of conscience,” said Quixote’s Rea Howarth. “They are politicizing Holy Communion. Now, that is a scandal.”